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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                 2025 December 25   
      
                        Unicorn, Fox Fur and Christmas Tree   
                     Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Kalika   
      
      Explanation: A star forming region cataloged as NGC 2264, this   
      beautiful but complex arrangement of interstellar gas and dust is about   
      2,700 light-years distant in the faint but fanciful constellation   
      Monoceros, the Unicorn. Seen toward the celestial equator and near the   
      plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the seasonal skyscape mixes reddish   
      emission nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars with   
      dark interstellar dust clouds. Where the otherwise obscuring dust   
      clouds lie close to the hot, young stars, they also reflect starlight,   
      forming blue reflection nebulae. In fact, bright variable star S   
      Monocerotis is immersed in a blue-tinted haze near center. Arrayed with   
      a simple triangular outline above S Monocerotis, the stars of NGC 2264   
      are popularly known as the Christmas Tree star cluster. Carved by   
      energetic starlight, the Cone Nebula sits upside down at the apex of   
      this cosmic Christmas tree while the dusty, convoluted pelt of glowing   
      gas and dust under the tree is called the Fox Fur Nebula. This rich   
      telescopic frame spans about 1.5 degrees or 3 full moons on the sky top   
      to bottom, covering nearly 80 light-years at the distance of NGC 2264.   
      
                       Tomorrow's picture: extrasolar flyby   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,   
                              NASA Science Activation   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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